Vanilla
by Sireen Silverspinner
Summary: Dull and dragging, coated with cheese. Let's not forget cheese. NejiTen.


**Standard Disclaimers Apply**

* * *

The rain was falling so heavily that it took her sharpest senses to be useful. The large drops of sweet water splattered everywhere, her face included. Though it admittedly felt rather nice,

Yet she had no time to ponder on such a thing. She had three nin after her pretty throat and she was at a loss about what had happened to Neji.

She wasn't worried, because he could take care of himself, blind spot or not. She was simply annoyed at herself because she was supposed to be there for him.

She decided then, that she needed to finish it quickly. She skidded, somewhat gracefully, on the wet ground and took a stance.

Later on she recalls the event but says she took a chance.

A chance that she doesn't regret, but it was a close shave all in all.

As she readied herself, her opponents were beyond. They charged at her, a split second before she was ready.

_For all my training_, she thought wryly. _I sure have a knack for ending up with challengers way, _way_ past my level_. She attempted to harden, something she was trained to do. If things were in her favor, she could deflect to blows.

But where she was taught to deflect, her adversaries were taught to penetrate. She barely managed to evade the blows to her head.

And then Neji was there, fighting them off with only slight difficulty.

_Right on time_? She mused. _No… a little late…_

Demo…_ better late than never…_

Two of them went down by his hand. The third was given a more horrible punishment, because he managed to get her on the head before any of them could do anything about it.

He turned to her then, a frown on his face, but she was losing consciousness. He blinked and put his full attention to her.

As she fell and her eyes dropped, she flung three kunai at one of his victims as he attempted to harm Neji from behind.

It was nice to know that they were even. Kind of.

* * *

When Tenten came to, she was on his back. He was jumping through the trees with practiced ease. She could make out Lee and the others through the rain, jumping a few branches ahead. There were also a couple a few branches behind. She took this as a good sign, because the last time she lost consciousness on a mission she had been out for days.

Neji felt her awaken, but he didn't say anything. What could he say? She had proved her worth for the hundredth time. She wasn't the strongest kunoichi in all of Konoha, but there was a _pretty _good chance at the rate she was going. And she knew this, so he didn't need to tell her.

Besides, it was raining too heavily for that. Neji suspected that if he opened his mouth to speak, he would get a cool but unwanted drink.

It didn't stop Tenten, though.

"Sorry," she mumbled. "I'm really sorry."

"Whg—what?" Neji was taken aback. Not because the rain slid into his mouth like he expected, but because she was apologizing.

"I should have been able to take them on," Tenten said. She shifted. "_Aa_… you can put me down, I'm not seriously hurt."

He halted nimbly and set her down. A pain shot through her head, but she figured it would be gone in a few hours. She winced.

They continued on their way, the rain making it close to impossible to being safe. But they were Konoha nins, and they did fine.

* * *

They were spared having to do the report, as they had been a rather large group and neither of them were team leaders.

Though he would be, soon enough, she realized, resisting the urge to tease him. She would be surprised if Neji was not ANBU captain within the next year or so.

_Then again…_ she rolled her eyes as she thought about Uchiha Sasuke. Better not say anything, though. Although it really was fun to tease Neji about how he never forgave Sasuke for "having more admirers", she really did not want another all out sparring session just yet.

"Horrible rain," she said cheerfully instead. They were both headed home, just the two of them on that route. She was in a rather good mood, albeit tired, because they didn't order her to spend the night at the hospital.

"Hn."

"I can't wait to get home," Tenten said. "Good thing it's not so far."

"Hn."

"Just around the corner…" she said, and then she stopped. "Wait a minute. Your home is _far_."

"…"

"…It's _much_ farther…"

"…"

"…In fact, it could be all the way in the other side of Konoha, if I'm not mistaken…"

"…" (He waited patiently for her point)

"_Baka_!" Tenten attempted to hit him, but missed. Neji wasn't a prodigy for nothing. "You were planning to walk home _in this rain_?"

"…"

Now she was just being ridiculous. A Shinobi went through hell and back several times over in many scenarios. A little rain wasn't going to kill him.

"Don't stare at me all exasperated. Look, why don't you come in for a bit?"

Her glare told him that she wasn't really asking.

He rolled his eyes when she wasn't looking but he followed her in.

* * *

Tenten insisted that he bathed first. Neji remembered how stubborn she was. Not really wanting to argue, he went first.

"There're some clothes you can use in there, I left them out," she called through the door. "Hang up your wet stuff."

He glanced at the counter. He was somewhat apprehensive (Tenten lived alone and was most definitely female) but found that the clothes were in fact made for men.

His eyes narrowed.

When he came out, she had a steaming cup of tea waiting for him.

"Don't you _dare_ leave," she told him with her hands on her hips as she made her way to the bathroom for her turn. "It's still raining."

When she came out, Neji choked in his tea. He smoothly covered it by grunting in greeting, but he kept his eyes on the tea.

It wasn't as if she was wearing anything particularly showy, but plainness of her sleepwear kind of surprised him. The cloth looked soft, too, but he didn't want to think about that, right?

Her hair was out of its customary double bun bind, something he was not accustomed to. He didn't know what to think.

And the bruises (for he could see some) from the mission angered him for some reason or the other…

"Ah, good, you didn't run away," Tenten said, pleased. "Done with the tea?"

"_Hai._ Thank you."

She put the things in the sink and sat down with him at the table, facing him with her chin meeting her palms as her elbows rested on the surface.

"Look, I'll let you go when your things dry. Or at least when the rain stops."

She must have taken his silence for sulking.

Neji decided to just ask her the one thing that bothered him. "Whose clothes are these?"

The questioned seemed to surprise her. "Well…"

"…" He frowned. He didn't like her dodgy answer.

"Shikamaru."

Neji was taken aback. "Nara?"

"No, don't think like that," she half scolded, then closed her eyes. "Well… the shirt's mine. But the rest is his. He needed a place to stay one night… something about Ino hassling him. So I let him stay here." He drew a sharp breath, but she didn't notice. "Ino tracked him down and dragged him away the next morning, so his clothes lay forgotten." She laughed at the memory.

"So you let him spend the night?"

"Yeah. Totally worth it… watching him suffer Ino's wrath is the funniest thing ever. Although those two are going to announce an engagement any day now." Tenten grinned to herself.

Neji decided not to be stupid. No freaking way would Nara be willing to handle _two_ women anyway. _Too lazy_.

But he asked another question, just in case she noticed his troubled feeling at the thought that a man spent a night…

"This is _your_ shirt?"

She laughed at his raised eyebrows, but she didn't blame him. "I know… it's a man-shirt. But I was going to tie-dye it some time ago. I needed a plain white shirt and I didn't have one, so I got this one."

"Tie-dye? And why a man's shirt?"

"Well, it wasn't for me to _wear_. I just wanted to try out the tie-dye thing. See what it was like."

"…"

Tenten rolled her eyes. "You think it's stupid."

"Waste of a good shirt," he shrugged, though _yes_, he did think it was stupid.

"Don't give me that, Hyuuga Neji. And besides, it was a cheap shirt."

"Hn."

They lapsed into silence. Neji caught himself staring, but he couldn't help it. He noticed, for instance, that her face was no longer childishly round. Her skin, though a kunoichi's through and through, looked smooth and soft. And he body had grown over the years.

Tenten looked up and saw him looking at her. He held her gaze before looking away, but she didn't miss the intensity of his eyes.

She forced herself to stop hoping.

"Hey, Neji…"

"Hn?"

"Do you… still believe in fate?"

It was a difficult question.

"Maybe. In a way."

She didn't know why she asked. All she knew was that she liked looking at him there, his face contemplative and eyes deep.

"How's that?"

His brow furrowed, trying to concentrate on answering the question. But suddenly he was aware that it was late, very late, and his senses were becoming rather sensitive. The exhaustion from the mission was long forgotten (or perhaps _buried_)…

"Fate is a plan. Something laid out for you. I used to think you had no choice… but fate is also something you can defy. You can make your own decisions."

It hit her hard. Very,_ very_ hard.

"And… you plan on defying yours?"

He looked at her.

"Yes."

She _loved_ him.

It was so simple. She didn't know why she fought it for so long.

And then she realized… she was asking for a lot. Not only that, but the consequences weren't all rainbows.

Neji was still looking at her when the word exchange they just had replayed in his head. And another thing flashed before him. He frowned at it.

It was then that he made his decision, and it was in sync with his answer to her last question.

_You plan on defying yours?_

_Yes._

He removed the shirt.

"N-Neji… What are you doing?"

"I'm not wearing a cheap shirt," he said, smirking at her growing uneasiness. He stood up and went to her. Slowly, he pulled her to her feet.

"It wasn't that cheap," she murmured. His hand gently found her cheek.

He leaned in, taking in her scent. Her light, light scent. And he leaned in until his lips met hers.

She tasted sweet.

He pulled apart to look at her. She looked at him straight in the eyes and said in a halting voice:

"The rain stopped."

At first he was going to withdraw, somewhat angrily, but then he looked at her closely and understood. She wasn't rejecting him. Her eyes told him that.

She was urging him to make sure he knew what he was doing.

She was giving him a chance to back out.

But she was also asking him to love her.

He kissed her again, because he supposed he already did.

His hands moved through her hair. Her hands mirrored his, moving through his soft, soft hair.

And then her arms were around his neck as his own hands moved down. His head tilted, and soon he was kissing her neck.

Was it possible to remember everything and nothing at the same time?

* * *

**Possible two-part thing, depending on my time. Oh! The CHEESE! XD**


End file.
